The Bombers announced Monday afternoon that they have suspended Banks. The 4-time CFL all-star had requested over the weekend that the club release him, but Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea said the team decided on Monday to instead suspend Banks without pay.

So what does the future of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers defence look like now that linebacker Kory Banks -- one of the men the club was touting in the off-season to anchor that defence -- has been suspended without pay?

Well, it’s going to look a whole lot like the most recent past.

With Banks missing Winnipeg’s regular season opener against Toronto last Thursday -- the club’s official reason at the time was that Banks was injured -- you can draw some inferences from the defensive alignments Winnipeg used against the Argos to figure out what the Bombers defence will now look like moving forward without Banks, who was suspended on Monday.

Probably the biggest beneficiary of Banks’s suspension in terms of playing time will be Johnnie Sears, who took the majority of reps at Banks’s strong-side linebacker position against Toronto.

The general consensus is that Sears won the job over Banks in training camp anyway and Sears’s positional flexibility -- and willingness to play whatever role the club might have for him -- was going to see him play a big role this season, with or without Banks on the roster.

But with Banks now gone, that role as one of the club’s defensive leaders has now been cemented. “I didn’t try to take anyone’s job, I was just playing my game and playing hard naturally,” Sears said Monday following practice at Investors Group Field. “And coach made the decision to keep me...

“This is most definitely an opportunity for me -- to play and to start. And I’m going to take it and run with it.”

Sears was asked if the Banks saga -- which played out in various incarnations since last Thursday -- was a distraction for him team as they prepare for Henry Burris and the Ottawa Redblacks to visit IGF Thursday night.

“No I don’t think so. We have enough vets to realize the business side of football. So we kind of understand coaches make decisions to better the team and support the team. So we’ve just got to roll with it.

“I don’t think it’s a distraction. No one’s even talking about it (yesterday).”

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Offensive lineman Steve Morley and defensive lineman Zach Anderson both sat out practice Monday for the second straight day, but head coach Mike O’Shea insisted both men are still expected to play on Thursday against the Redblacks.

O’Shea has said he’s not eager to make many roster changes this week after the success of the unit that he put out against the Argos last week, suggesting halfback Alex Suber, cornerback Donovan Alexander and running back Will Ford -- who are all practicing this week after missing last week’s game -- have their work cut out to crack the active roster this week.

O’Shea said Monday that Suber specifically is “doubtful” for this week. O'Shea added newly signed receiver Romby Bryant also won’t play this week.

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Bombers running back Nic Grigsby said he’s changing nothing in his preparation after a standout game against the Argos, which saw him rush 21 times for 122 yards.

“We’re coming out, practicing hard everyday and preparing for the worst,” said Grigsby, noting the Redblacks had the bye in Week 1 and have had a long time to study their first opponent in 2014.

“Ottawa had a long preparation time to prepare for us, just like we had a long preparation time to prepare for Toronto. So we can’t take anyone lightly.”

"He’s been suspended. He’s gone home," O’Shea told reporters at Investors Group Field Monday afternoon shortly after his club practiced in preparation for Thursday’s home game against the Ottawa Redblacks.

"Business decision... Two thoughts on that. If you have an asset, you’re not going to just let it go on to the street. And obviously when a player comes to you and wants to be released, there’s that chance other players will come and want to get released. Why would you do that? It’s not a very good business decision, right?

"So the best decision is suspend him and he goes home and does what he’s going to do."

Banks, who received a reported $50,000 signing bonus from the Bombers after they acquired him from the BC Lions in exchange for WR Kito Poblah earlier this year, did not play in Winnipeg’s CFL opener last Thursday, a 45-21 Bombers win over the Toronto Argonauts in which Banks was listed on the injured list.

Immediately following that game, O’Shea flatly denied a TSN report earlier in the evening that Banks was essentially a healthy scratch for the Argos game after a training camp in which Banks had been outplayed at his position by Johnnie Sears and had fallen out of favour with defensive coordinator Gary Etcheverry.

But after initially insisting that Banks was simply injured and the TSN report was wrong, the Bombers were forced to contend with published reports over the weekend that Winnipeg was actively trying to trade Banks. That led O’Shea to ultimately concede on Sunday that the club and the player were in an active disagreement over his role on the club.

While O’Shea described Banks as an unhappy Bombers player, Bombers players contacted after practice on Monday described a valuable and generous teammate who will be missed. "It’s tough to see Kory go because he was real good to me -- just being a vet and telling me what he saw all through training camp," said Bombers starting QB Drew Willy.

"Me and him would talk a lot during meals, just because he would play certain routes a certain way and I was just wondering what he saw from the receivers that would make him do that. Obviously he’s got a lot of info being a vet and he’s a real talented guy...

"Obviously it’s tough to see him go, but we have to move on to Ottawa."

Teague Sherman, who got reps in the Toronto game at Banks’s position, also said he was sorry to see Banks go. "Banks is an amazing football player. I was learning tons from him. Absolutely -- I learned tons from him. It sucks that he had to go."

Bombers offensive lineman Glenn January said Banks acted professionally right until the end. "Kory’s a professional and any problems he had with the club were dealt with behind closed doors," said January. "He hasn’t let that leak into the locker room and that’s a true testmanent to his leadership style.

"Whenever you come over to a new team, sometimes there are things that might not work out in a players mind the way they thought that it would. And I’m not exactly a hundred percent sure on what the issue is there, but I know that he will be missed."

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